


Love and Peace or Else

by Esinde Nayrall (red_squared)



Category: Weiss Kreuz
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-20
Updated: 2011-03-20
Packaged: 2017-10-17 03:23:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/172386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/red_squared/pseuds/Esinde%20Nayrall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Schuldig had laughed until his stomach ached when Nagi reported to Crawford that Mamoru wanted to make the world a better place for everyone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love and Peace or Else

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lady_Ganesh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Ganesh/gifts).



> Written for the prompt 'Why did Mamoru start dressing like a grown-up, anyway? I WANT TO KNOW.'

_Lay down_  
_Lay down_  
_Lay your sweet lovely on the ground_  
_Lay your love on the track_  
_We're gonna break the monster's back_  
_Yes we are.._.

(“Love and Peace or Else” – from U2's “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb”)

~~*~~

“People in Kanazawa are saying you’ve been grounded,” Nagi says by way of ‘hello’ as he lets himself in through the window.

“Nagi‑kun!” Mamoru says, putting down his book. “How was your trip?”

“I’ll tell you later. When were you last outside?” Mamoru is looking a lot paler than Nagi remembers. “Let’s get you out of here to start with,” he says, feeling along the walls and the corners with his Power. No security or listening devices — whatever else Mamoru may be guilty of, he’s still Saijou Takatori’s heir and is afforded privacy inside his own rooms. That might come to a stop when they realise that the suite’s door isn’t the only way people can get in. “Do you want to get changed?”

Mamoru looks down at the dark grey silk yukata he has on and then back up at Nagi with an embarrassed smile. “I would like that very much. Could you pick something out for me?”

“Do I get a payrise for being your bodyguard _and_ your stylist?” he asks as he slides open the wardrobe door in Mamoru’s bedroom and reaches into it with his Power …

… to find that it’s empty.

Not only are there no clothes in the wardrobe, but when he walks out of the study and into the bedroom, he can see that Mamoru’s futon has been stripped of all of its sheets.

“How do you sleep at night?” he demands, turning back to face Mamoru, who’s slowly following him out of the study.

“You’re not the first person to ask me that,” Mamoru says mildly, and that’s when Nagi notices that he’s been holding the yukata closed with one hand, because the sash is missing. Mamoru doesn’t miss the look and says, “It’s for my own safety. My bodyguard was absent, you see, and I might have had an accident. I _have_ been having trouble sleeping, but everyone is so kind, and I always have a cup of weak tea before I’m tucked in for the night to help me sleep.”

They are leaving _right now_ , Nagi decides, striding forward and snatching at Mamoru’s free hand before he propels them out of the window.

“Usual place?” he asks.

Mamoru nods, letting go of Nagi’s hand to clutch at the lower half of the yukata.

They rocket straight up until Nagi’s fairly sure they’re high enough that they won’t be immediatey identified by anbody down on the ground. He arcs them out around Mount Utatsu and then towards one of the many lookouts that’s completely inaccessible by foot.

Mamoru is shivering violently as Nagi lowers them to the ground. He removes his own jacket and drapes it over Mamoru’s shoulders, then slides a layer of protection between the chill surface rock and Mamoru’s bare feet.

“I can’t believe you’d waste any time asking about my trip! What happened while I was away?” he asks now that there’s no one nearby to hear or interrupt.

“I made the mistake of upsetting Yoshido‑san.”

“Your grandfather’s assistant?”

“Yes, but now also the acting head of security, which includes Kritiker.”

“And does Yoshido _‑san_ understand that you’re not Omi Tsukiyono, which means you’re no longer one of his employees?”

“He’s one of the Party faithful and I … said something complimentary about the Democratic Party within his earshot.”

“Your father’s Party?”

Mamoru’s lips quirk as though he wants to smile. “Reiji Takatori led the _Liberal_ Democratic Party.”

“And you couldn’t convince Yoshido that you misspoke?”

Now Mamoru does smile as he says, “I doubt that. The Liberal Democratic Party has controlled the Diet continuously since the mid‑1950s. Its politicians are complacent, corrupt and take their power for granted. The Democratic Party has never been the ruling Party, but it’s becoming popular with younger people, and it’s liberal in its policies and its views, rather than just in name. In another five years — ten at the most — we could win, and then we could initiate genuine reform in — ”

“We?” Nagi immediately regrets the interruption because Mamoru starts to look dejected. If he’d said anything along these lines, then there’s no way that Yoshido can be persuaded that Mamoru merely confused the two parties.

“It’s another six years before I’ll be old enough to run for my father’s seat, and that’s only if the election is held in the same year, in which case it may be even longer. Mention the name ‘Reiji Takatori’, and all most people can remember is that he’s the one that brought martial law to Tokyo a handful of days after he was made Prime Minister but before he was murdered. Will six years be long enough for people to forget that?”

“I’m not the one you need to convince,” Nagi says, keeping his tone gentle to remind Mamoru that he’s already on his side. “What does your grandfather say?”

“We haven’t discussed it. He hasn’t been well,” Mamoru sighs in frustration, “and I’m not able to get in to see him.”

Nagi feels like the bottom’s fallen out of his stomach as he takes that in. Saijou had been similarly unavailable to Reiji in the last days of Reiji’s life.

“What happened when you tried to leave your rooms?”

“I was firmly escorted back. I thought about going out the window, but you saw they took care of that.” At least until today. “They have my keys … my cards … Nagi‑kun, they even have all of my weapons _._ ”

“You didn’t try again?”

“It was only going to be a few more days before you got back, or before Grandfather recovered enough for me to see him.”

Nagi's skin crawls with fear as he realises just how disastrous the last few days have been. He can’t leave Mamoru alone again — not without taking a couple of precautions, and maybe not at all in the near future.

Mamoru might be blinded by the ties of kinship between himself and Saijou, but Nagi can’t afford to be.

None of these people have the right to treat Mamoru like this, but they’re able to get away with it because Saijou hasn’t told them they can’t.

_Because Saijou is testing Mamoru._

“They’re doing it because no‑one’s told them they can’t,” he says heatedly, careful not to actually implicate Saijou since he doesn’t have any proof. Mamoru looks at him blankly. “ _You_ have to tell them that they can’t. When your grandfather’s ill, doesn’t that mean you’re in charge?” Reiji had certainly acted that way.

“I’m not sure what I can — ”

“Be sure,” he says, fear making him snap. “It has to go both ways,” he adds, with a little more restraint. “Power and responsibility, hand in glove. You shouldn’t let them make your decisions if you’re going to be responsible for them.”

Schuldig had laughed until his stomach ached when Nagi had reported to Crawford that Mamoru wanted to make the world a better place for everyone. _He certainly makes **your** world a better place_ , Schuldig had scoffed, _whenever he's in the room_. Nagi’d been so tired of their mockery. They relied on him for everything, but they were never, ever grateful. _Yes. I like him,_ he’d admitted. _Does that_ _mean you’re going to have Farfarello kill him, too?_ he’d added scathingly, and that had shut them both up, which meant that he didn’t need to add, _Oh, but you can’t, because you let **him** leave with his love, didn’t you?_ Schuldig had pulled it out of his head anyway, and then made some saccharine enquiry about whether Mamoru shared a 'certain someone's' love of bunny-dolls, and …

… he doesn't remember much of who said or did what next, but he does vividly recall storming out of there — in particular, the precise second he'd realised that his feet hadn't been touching the ground. Within a month of leaving them, he'd managed to fly for the first time. Taking it as a sign that he was well rid of all of that emotional baggage, he's never looked back.

Until now.

He hasn’t exactly burned his bridges with Schwarz, but going back to them will require rather a lot more humility than he possesses.

“I’ve let you down, haven’t I?” Mamoru asks quietly.

Nagi startles at that. He doesn’t know how to respond because he needs Mamoru to be strong enough and valuable enough to Saijou that he isn’t locked in his rooms or bullied by his underlings or fucking _trembling from the cold_ because he’s left the castle without permission.

If it were an option, he’d simply take the both of them far, far away from here right now because both of their lives have been difficult enough and they don’t need this — especially Mamoru. But they need intelligence on Eszett as well as the agents to collect it and they stand a much better chance getting what they need out of Kritiker than any other organisation. At least for now.

Mamoru shakes violently and then curls Nagi's jacket around himself more tightly as an icy wind blasts past them.

“I said I’d protect you. That includes your dignity,” is what he says. “If people don’t take you seriously, they’re going to try to get past your guard — I’m your guard, and I really hate working overtime.”

That finally gets a genuine smile out of Mamoru. “As if anybody could, Nagi‑kun.”

“Don’t think they won’t try. Some of them remember me working for your father, after all, and he was killed off by a couple of teenagers wielding archaic weapons,” he adds. Mamoru covers his mouth with one hand, but his shoulders shake with silent laughter. “Do you want to go back now?”

“Not just yet.” Mamoru shakes his head. “You’re right. I need … I need to think about what to do next. I can’t underestimate Yoshido-san’s paranoia again. Just imagine what he may have done if I were actually old enough to _vote_ for the Democratic Party.”

“I can think of better things to do with my imagination.”

“Mmm. Such as how Grandfather might react when he finds out that Yoshido-san hasn’t the faintest idea where I am?”

“Yes, that's good.” Nagi leaves unsaid that he’s curious about Saijou’s reaction, too, albeit for different reasons. “I checked back into my old room in Kanazawa. You can stay with me for now,” he says. He holds his arms out to Mamoru. “Some of my things will fit you — at least until you’re able to buy something more appropriate.”

“That might be a problem,” Mamoru says. He comes close enough for Nagi to surround him with his Power. Nagi doesn't quite trust himself to actually touch Mamoru right now. “I still don’t have any of my cards or any cash.”

“We’ll think of something,” Nagi says before he launches them off the outlook and down the mountain side. The prospect of Mamoru borrowing his clothes is oddly appealing.

~*~

As it turns out, Mamoru is rather a lot broader in the shoulders than he is — using a bow as one’s primary weapon will do that to a person — and that puts shopping right at the top of their list of things to do.

They catch the train into Tokyo, with Mamoru dressed in a pair of Nagi’s trousers and one of his overcoats worn directly against his skin. It still doesn’t close completely over Mamoru’s chest and while everything that needs to be decently covered is, it’s also fairly obvious that Mamoru isn’t wearing anything under the coat. Nagi manages to distract himself from the urge to press against Mamoru during the journey by very firmly repelling any of the other passengers who have the same idea.

As they emerge from the subway, he can see that they’re headed towards one of the shopping arcades that stock the bright colours and unfortunate cuts that characterised Omi Tsukiyono’s wardrobe.

“Hey,” he calls, pulling Mamoru back with one hand before they actually enter the arcade. “This is me buying you something to wear, right?”

Mamoru blinks, which Nagi interprets as ‘I thought this was you lending me money’.

“Let me buy you something nice?” he suggests. “As a present?”

“As … Oh,” Mamoru flushes and radiates such happiness that Nagi feels a little guilty. “I’d like that. Where do you want to look?”

It’ll be expensive since it will have to be custom made. He knows from experience that at their size, it’s difficult to find anything that manages to look good, fits properly and hasn’t come from one of the racks in the children’s section.

From his previous stays in Tokyo with Schwarz, he knows of at least a dozen reputable bespoke tailors. And out of those, there are three he knows for certain have, in the past, insulted Schuldig’s and Crawford’s colour selections enough that he won’t have to worry about running into either of them on this trip.

~*~

Nagi makes a mental note to upgrade the security around the hack he’s set up to let him access the feeds from Tsukiyono Castle’s various cameras and bugs remotely.

On his laptop, he watches the output from one of the cameras in the main dining room out of the corner of his eye while he helps Mamoru into his suit jacket. He has absolutely no experience or qualifications in dress or presentation, but if this gets him close to and lets him touch Mamoru more often, then he’ll add it to his list of tasks.

“I still think you should have worn the pinstripes,” Nagi says.

“The pinstripes would have been a declaration of war.” Mamoru fusses with his cuffs.

As if returning to Tsukiyono Castle on the same day that Saijou finally appears to be well enough to eat dinner with the rest of his household isn’t a declaration of war all by itself. Only a complete fool would write it off as a coincidence, and Yoshido is far, far too paranoid to be a _complete_ fool.

Still, the dark blue wool Mamoru has on is expensive, sleek, fits him perfectly and sends its own message.

“Some other time,” Nagi suggests, smoothing a silk scarf over Mamoru’s shoulders and down his front. It might look like a casual afterthought, but in the right light and from the right angle, it can almost pass for a stole of office.

Mamoru reaches out and tabs through the camera feeds that Nagi has open, selecting one that shows the guard station on one of the Takatori’s smallers holdings, out on some tiny island in the Sea of Japan. “Look.”

Nagi immediately recognises Yoshido’s assistant — one of the few members of Saijou’s security team who has ever been kind to Mamoru.

“Arai’s been demoted?”

“Exiled, more like it. What a waste.”

“Looks like you were right to exploit Yoshido’s paranoia,” Nagi says, because they’re going in to face him and Mamoru needs his confidence reinforced. “He doesn’t know which of his staff to suspect let you out of the castle, so he suspects them all.” And quite a few of them would eventually repay that mistrust with genuine betrayal.

Mamoru’s expression doesn’t change, but he stops playing with his sleeves. 

An alert on Nagi’s screen goes off. He minimises that window and opens up another. “Your grandfather’s leaving his rooms now.” Nagi stows his laptop and arcs his satchel up and into Mamoru’s abandoned study.

It’s just far enough that he can reach out with his Power and follow Saijou’s progress so they can time their entry to match. They’d discussed sneaking Mamoru back through his rooms, but in the end decided that it would make a stronger statement to return through the front door.

“Ready?”

Mamoru catches his eye and nods.

Not for the first time, Nagi wishes that his empathy were more reliable one‑on‑one. It only really seems to work when a large number of people all feel the same thing.

“It’s a shame we couldn’t stay in Tokyo long enough to locate one of the other two,” he says instead, since there is more than one way to gauge another person’s mood. “Abyssinian didn’t look very convinced — are you sure he’ll bring the others?”

“He told me he would,” Mamoru says quietly as they approach the front door, “and I believe in Aya‑kun.”

 _Yes, but do you believe in yourself?_ “It’s not as if we have the authority to officially re‑form Weiss anyway,” he says.

“We will,” Mamoru says without hesitation. His tone is absolutely rock-solid certain.

Crawford would sometimes use that tone, but that was probably because he’d looked into the future and decided to roll with whatever he’d Seen. When Mamoru uses it, it’s because he’s determined to make it so, come what may, and Nagi knows which man he’d rather follow.

Mamoru turns to him and smiles brilliantly. “I believe in you, too, Nagi‑kun. Thank you for everything you’ve done.”

And that makes Nagi so ridiculously happy that he almost smashes down the doors before he remembers that no‑one else is supposed to know that he’s telekinetic, let alone how powerful he is.

As it is, there’s no need because both of the gaurds at the first security point look so relieved to see Mamoru return that they let hi in without argument. It’s quite likely that Tsukiyono Castle has been under its own form of martial law during their absence.

Some of the tension goes out of Mamoru as he proceeds down the hall, smilingly greeting anxious-looking servants and assuring them that ‘a few days’ solitude for quiet contemplation’ were exactly what he needed, just as Yoshido‑san suggested.

It’s a near thing after all the interuptions, but they reach the entrance to the dining hall just as Saijou is being helped out of his wheelchair and into his seat.

He’s not expecting Saijou to be surprised to see them. With the number of people Mamoru has greeted on their way in, someone must have alerted the lord to the young master’s return. Except that Saijou does look a little surprised.

Nagi wonders if it’s because of the way Mamoru is dressed.

“Mamoru!” Saijou wheezes enthusiastically.

Nagi nearly rolls his eyes at the act, and then realises that Saijou’s greeted Mamoru rather than waiting for Mamoru to speak first. From the surprise he picks up from the others in the room, he’s not the only one to notice.

“Grandfather, it fills my heart with gladness to see you recovered on my return,” Mamoru says, before bowing formally and then entering.

Nagi can’t follow, since it will look strange if Mamoru brings his own bodyguard to a dinner with just the castle’s household — even if that’s the one place he probably needs Nagi most.

“Ah. Yes, I’m feeling much better. You didn’t spend all of your break worrying about me, did you? Come, sit up here with me. I've missed you — Yoshido‑kun, you don’t mind moving do you?”

Nagi looks across to see Yoshido vacating his seat next to Saijou as Saijou points down toward the other end of the table, at an empty seat that will force the occupant to sit with his back to the entrance. And at the same time, Mamoru is being beckoned toward the seat of high honour, next to his grandfather.

_Is that good? Or is it another test?_

He ignores Saijou for the moment and takes another look at Yoshido, who is walking down the hall as Mamoru walks up the other way. And it’s immediately clear that Yoshido is walking at Mamoru as if he means to run him down.

 _Mamoru Takatori is not going to be made to scramble out of **anybody’s** way — least of all in his own home. _ And everybody in this room is going to learn that right now.

Yoshido looks outraged that Mamoru isn’t skipping out of his path and quickens his step, not making eye contact but definitely on a collision course. Nagi wraps his Power tight around Mamoru so that when Yoshido tries to shoulder‑charge him, the fool bounces right off.

Nagi takes particular care to have him hit the ground hard, but it’s not enough. Not after all of the ways this man has hurt and humiliated Mamoru. He thinks back to poor Mamoru shivering in that thin silk and he really, _really_ wants to add insult to injury by making Yoshido’s trousers split.

 _No,_ he tells himself firmly _. Because then people will remember this as the day that Yoshido ripped his pants, and today should be about Mamoru's return._ Crawford would be impressed with his restraint.

It’s enough that Mamoru is up at the head of the table where he belongs, and if his eyes shine a little too happily as he talks to Saijou, well … they’re family, after all.

As if Saijou has heard him, he looks up and meets Nagi’s gaze. Nagi stands as tall as he can under the scrutiny and makes himself smile back. There’s no more hiding now. The servants have seen Mamoru return with Nagi and even if they hadn’t, the cameras will have recorded it.

_Get a good look at me. I’m the one who helped your grandson, and I'm not going to be leaving any time soon._

Nagi has no doubt that Saijou knows what Yoshido put Mamoru through down to the last detail. And now Saijou knows what will happen if anybody tries it again. If Nagi doesn’t get at least one offer to buy out his loyalty to Mamoru before the night is over, he’ll be very disappointed.

For now, there are two full suitcases back in Kanazawa that need to be fetched back to Tsukiyono Castle, with contents that need to be unpacked and aired, and clothing that Mamoru will need to be helped into and out of until he gets used to wearing suits.

Everything else can wait.

**Author's Note:**

> All comments and kudos are appreciated and treasured -- even (especially?) on a fic as old as this one!


End file.
